DIE HARD Sequels Are A Hard Nut To Crack | Birth.Movies.Death. DIE HARD Sequels Are A Hard Nut To Crack The closest we ever came to a satisfying DIE HARD sequel. By Brian Collins Apr. 30, 2015 Apparently, the trick to coming up with a good Die Hard sequel is to grab something unrelated and refashion it to include John McClane. And if you think I'm exaggerating, consider the fact that only one of the sequels began life as one: the abysmal, universally loathed A Good Day To Die Hard. The three superior sequels were all originally written as non-McClane stories: Die Harder was based on a novel called 58 Minutes (a novel unrelated to the one that inspired the first film, and by a different author to boot), and both DH3 and 4 were based on existing spec scripts that were refashioned to fit into the series. But A Good Day? As awful as it is, and as completely out of character as John McClane may appear - somehow that was always meant to be a Die Hard. Go figure.

The best proof of this theory comes from Die Hard With A Vengeance, many fans' favorite sequel (it battles with Die Harder; I prefer 3 but I can't argue much with Harlin fans). First, a bit of fun history: Die Hard 3 was originally going to be set on a cruise ship, but Under Siege stole its thunder and the script was canned. LA based stories (one involving the subway system) were commissioned, but those were rejected by Bruce Willis. Finally, Fox/Willis found a solution: Jonathan Hensleigh's spec script that was titled Simon Says, which was also considered to be reworked into the next installment of the Lethal Weapon series, and even at one point Rapid Fire 2 (!), a film that never existed at all due to the death of Brandon Lee. Apparently the idea of just making his original script into an original movie was too insane for anyone to consider, and once the script was reworked, Willis approved, and the rest is history.

But here's the funny thing: many would agree that the first half of the film is superior to the 2nd, when exciting but not particularly inventive action scenes and a truly weak finale replace the first half's emphasis on suspense and tension, with McClane never even drawing his weapon until past the hour mark. That's not to say it lacked action - the frantic drive through Central Park and the terrific subway scene, where McClane boards the moving train by jumping onto it from the street above, are fine sequences. But in between them are the things people really remember about the film: McClane and Zeus (Sam Jackson) running around New York, solving Simon's riddles and bickering as the other cops got to do the more fun stuff like find a bomb that Simon has placed somewhere in one of the city's schools. There's also the matter of why McClane is involved, revealed about 15 minutes before the movie starts to falter: Simon is none other than Simon Gruber, older brother to Hans Gruber, last seen racing a Rolex watch to the asphalt around the Nakatomi building.

Of course, it's not JUST a revenge movie, as Simon has bigger plans, but the connection makes up for the fact that the movie lacks other ingredients from the first two films - namely Holly, Christmas, Al Powell (and Twinkies), and a more contained environment. What's funny about that is that according to Hensleigh, the first hour is almost word for word what he originally wrote as Simon Says (barring the obvious character name changes). The second hour isn't as good and that's the stuff they changed to make it more Die Hard-y! Not that it's BAD, really (well, the ending is, but before you bring up the original ending that's on the DVD - that's not very good either), but once Simon's grand plan is revealed and McClane is once again running around shooting everyone in sight, it's less novel - this is the sort of stuff we've seen before, and it was nice to have an hour or so built around McClane's underutilized detective skills.

His hangover prevents him from being too useful in the riddles, but he puts together a key part of Simon's plan (driving all of the police away from the Federal Reserve) and keeps track of things he learned earlier in the day (how the liquid bombs work, the stolen dump trucks) to help him later. By the time they're using a cable to make their way from a bridge to a moving ship, Willis and Jackson's chemistry is what's really keeping it afloat, not the story, and it's endlessly amusing to me that these scenes were the ones they spent time making sure lived up to the Die Hard legacy. One cannot discount the importance of John McTiernan, who is just as essential as his stars in keeping the 2nd half from being outright bad. He is by far the best director of the four who have made these movies, and his ability to wring tension out of every situation is something the other films sorely lack.

Check out the scene in Vengeance where McClane has to wear the racist sandwich board in Harlem - he holds the reveal of what it says until Zeus sees him, and from that point you sweat just as much as McClane, waiting for the inevitable moment where someone will take major offense to its message. Or the bit where McClane enters an elevator with four goons he's already pegged as being terrorists (his demeanor is way too chatty right off the bat - he knew long before he saw the badge that they were not who they said they were). To me, these bits are far more exciting than McClane spinning his car around to shoot some guys on some (suddenly rainy?) New York back road. McT sat out Die Harder (Renny Harlin* did a pretty good job in his own right, but it's the action in that one that keeps the Blu-ray returning to the player - not the plot or character work), and paid it no mind here - I don't know how you can watch this movie and walk away with any plausible theory that McTiernan and co. were acknowledging Die Harder's existence at all.

In Die Harder, John has moved to LA and taken a job with the LAPD, happily reunited with Holly and his children. Here, he's on the NYPD and his marriage is on even rockier terms than it was in the first film - there is no mention of their reunion or him working for the LAPD at all. The novelization does explain that he hated LA and went back to NY hoping to make it work long distance, but this quick factoid is delivered via John's inner monologue, as if the author was annoyed by the film's lack of explanation and added one himself - it seems a fairly important bit of catch up detail like that would have been explained on-screen/aloud, even if it was eventually cut. Continuity in the Die Hard series has never been its strong suit (at least two actors have played two characters, and McClane makes a joke about "another" Agent Johnson in DH4 even though he never met the first two), so the idea that the guy who directed 1 and 3 would choose to ignore 2 doesn't seem like a stretch. Regardless, to me this is the closest thing we ever got, and probably ever will, to a truly satisfying Die Hard sequel.

I enjoy the 2nd film a lot, but its frequent "It happens again!" plotting irritates me (why the hell is Dick Thornburg on that plane?), and again, it lacks any real character work for McClane. Live Free and A Good Day aren't even in the running (though, PG-13 edit or not, Live Free has by far the best callback to John's famous catchphrase), but with Vengeance - even with its lesser finale - I always feel like I'm truly seeing a new chapter in McClane's life when I watch it. When McClane pulls a very large splinter out of his arm with his bare teeth to use as a lockpick, I recognize the guy that had to drag himself into a bathroom in the original film, and his affinity for working class folk remained intact, something the next two sequels ignored entirely (particularly the 5th one, with McClane punching a random Russian guy for the crime of not speaking English). Sure, it woulda been nice if he reunited with Holly (or at least Al Powell) at the end of the film, but with each lesser sequel that followed, I grew to appreciate what Vengeance DOES offer all that much more.

*Fun fact: About 14 years after Die Hard w/a Vengeance, Harlin went on to direct 12 Rounds, a film that shamelessly ripped off its "Make the hero jump through hoops under the guise of revenge to distract everyone away from my robbery" plot, right down to intentionally crashing a moving vehicle even though the hero did things right. I don't know if this was his revenge for not being asked back for Vengeance, or just a hilarious coincidence, but either way I find it highly amusing. Related Items: John McClane (Character) John McClane (Character) from Die Hard (1988) The content of this page was created by users. It has not been screened or verified by IMDb staff. There may be more photos available for this character. To select more photos to be displayed in this character's gallery, click the Edit Photos link. Overview Biography: John McClane, Male, Irish-American, born on the 11th of August 1957 New York City... See more » Alternate Names: Det. John McClane / John McClane Elf / John McLane / Lt. John McClane / Officer John McClane Filmography ...

aka "Die Hard 5" - USA (informal title) ... aka "Die Hard: Last Day" - Japan (English title) (imdb display title) ... aka "Die Hard 4.0" - Australia, Ireland (English title) (imdb display title), South Africa (English title), UK (imdb display title), USA (working title) ... aka "Die Hard 4: Live Free or Die Hard" - South Africa (English title) (TV title) ... aka "Die Hard: With a Vengeance" - Australia (imdb display title), Canada (English title) (imdb display title), Ireland (English title) (imdb display title), UK (imdb display title) ... aka "Die Hard 3" - Japan (English title) (imdb display title) From A Good Day to Die Hard (2013) Murphy : He'll be lucky to get life. John McClane : He can never get out of his own way... He had a lot of problems... He's still my kid. Murphy : I know. But it's Russia. They do things differently over there.

Screen Junkies 10 Best Action Movie Characters something here Of all the cool people in the film industry nowadays, the 10 best action movie characters are all bona fide BAMFs (as Dane Cook would say). Action movie characters have a way of bringing a production to life, establishing a link between our world and the fiction of the film. The best action movie characters do more than that, however, and give life to that special connection between audience and protagonist. Come see our list of action movie characters, then decide who you think would make your personal top ten. John J. Rambo from the "Rambo" series. Did anyone really think we could construct a list of the ten best action movie characters without including him? Stallone's excellent rendition of an American hero short on patience? Drafted at the age of seventeen into the Vietnam war, Rambo is a man with a taste of war, and a vengeance to match it. James Bond from the "Bond" series. Played by Sean Connery , Daniel Craig , Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan , George Lazenby, and Roger Moore, James Bond is one of the most prolific action movie characters.

His consistent success at the box office prove his good looks and taste for danger are golden with audiences around the world. Indiana Jones from the "Indiana Jones" franchise. From "Raiders of the Lost Ark" to "The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull", Jones appeals to moviegoers everywhere. His long career in the form of various movies, television shows, novels, and games gave him a spot on the list of best action movie characters. T-800 from the "Terminator" series. Arnold knows how to appeal to fans, and his bulging biceps can tear their way to our hearts any day. Even though he can't always rip apart higher grade Terminators, he still can prove to be a daunting ally on the battlefield. Morpheus from "The Matrix ." If there is one thing Laurence Fishburne knows, it's everything. Being the captain of the Nebuchadnezzar, Morpheus is one of the pinnacle leaders of the human resistance within the Matrix world. John McClane from the "Die Hard" series. Bruce Willis gives us that iconic look of the classic American "bad ass" in film.

McClane always manages to survive the most bizarre events, and still he has lived through numerous sequels. Jackie Chan from "Rumble in the Bronx". In the various spin-offs, sequels, and side-gigs he's done to promote his influence in Western film, Jackie Chan has shown us how cool he is. By far, he is the most recognized of action movie characters within the martial arts genre. Nico from "Above the Law". Steven Seagal first made his on-screen premiere with this 1988 action flick. Among all of the action movie characters out there, we'd be foolish to forget Seagal's priceless impersonation of a Chicago cop in search of a drug ring leader. Han Solo from the original "Star Wars" trilogy. While many won't consider "Star Wars" a part of action flick, Han Solo's blaster would beg to differ. A loner, Han connected with the average guy who just wanted to do his thing. He helped boost the series far into and above the mainstream. Lara Croft from "Tomb Raider." For far too long, women have been completely underrepresented among action movie characters (and heroes).

Lara Croft was a tough girl who could deliver a punch with rocking power and accuracy. She made her debut in a video game and ended up in the soul of future action flicks to come. There are a lot of action movie characters out there, but only the premiere get to the top. The best action movie characters are men and women who give the film life, something that almost any box office hit needs. Bruce Willis talks 'Die Hard,' McClane and film No. 5 FacebookEmail Twitter Google+ LinkedIn Pinterest Bruce Willis talks 'Die Hard,' McClane and film No. 5 For John McClane, it all started at Nakatomi Plaza. Nearly 25 years ago, Bruce Willis' action character wisecracked his way through a hostage siege. Post to Facebook Bruce Willis talks 'Die Hard,' McClane and film No. 5 For John McClane, it all started at Nakatomi Plaza. Nearly 25 years ago, Bruce Willis' action character wisecracked his way through a hostage siege. Check out this story on USATODAY.com: CancelSend A link has been sent to your friend's email address. Posted! A link has been posted to your Facebook feed.

4 To find out more about Facebook commenting please read the Conversation Guidelines and FAQs Bruce Willis talks 'Die Hard,' McClane and film No. 5 Bryan Alexander, USA TODAY 8:00 p.m. ET Feb. 13, 2013 CLOSE x Share Actor Bruce Willis talks about coming back for the fifth installment of the popular 'Die Hard' film series. He's back, with a son, in a film series with so much success that "no one could predict." Bruce Willis with the Nakatomi Plaza building in the background where the main action from the first 'Die Hard' movie took place. "It all started over here," says Willis. (Photo: Robert Hanashiro, USA TODAY) Story Highlights Bruce Willis celebrates 25 years of 'Die Hard' and his character, John McClane. McClane has appeared in five 'Die Hard' movies, including 'A Good Day to Die Hard,' opening Thursday There's a 50-foot mural of McClane on the Fox lot CENTURY CITY, Calif. — For John McClane, it all started at Nakatomi Plaza.

Twenty-five years ago, Bruce Willis' action character wisecracked his way through a hostage siege at the fictional office building in 1988'sDie Hard. McClane lost his shoes, and his white T-shirt turned black from the many bomb blasts and fireballs he encountered. But in the end, the good guy prevailed and a blockbuster action franchise exploded into pop culture. "It all started over here," says Willis, looking up at Fox Plaza, the building that filled in for Nakatomi Plaza during the shoots in this L.A. suburb. "It was cold out like now. And I spent a lot of time on that roof." He recalls that "the filming went by so quickly, not unlike the last 25 years. "We made a great movie out of a building. And there are about seven more (structures) that have been built around it since then." MORE: Action hero Willis on gun control Much more than the upscale office park neighborhood has changed. Willis, now 57, no longer has the black hair that the younger McClane sported. His fully shaved head now shows small growths of white. He also has shoes, sporting perfectly shined Pradas along with an immaculately tailored dark suit.

But the sense of amazement over what took place after Die Hard wrapped never changed. "I never gave it much thought. I thought, 'Well, that happened,' " says Willis. "But no one ever knows when a film is going to take off. No one could predict this." Fueled in part by Willis' instant catchphrase "yippee ki-yay,'' the John McTiernan-directedDie Hard earned $140.8 million worldwide and spawned a franchise that has tallied $1.1 billion. The fifth installment, A Good Day to Die Hard, opens Thursday and features McClane traveling to Russia to aid his grown, estranged son (Jai Courtney) who happens to be a CIA operative. "Did I think at the time that 25 years later I would still be making these films?" says Willis. "You should call the president of the United States and ask him what's going to happen 25 years from now. No one has any idea." Fox Studios executives have been so overwhelmed by the Die Hard success that on Jan.

31 they unveiled a fitting anniversary present: a 50-foot-high permanent mural on Stage 8 of the movie lot featuring McClane crawling through the air ducts of Nakatomi Plaza. As his A Good Day to Die Hard co-stars and two of his daughters with ex-wife Demi Moore — Tallulah Belle, 19, and Rumer, 24 (they have a sister, Scout, 21) — looked on, Willis hit a detonation button that dropped the mural curtain and set off enough fireworks to trigger a symphony of car alarms in the studio's parking garage. A Good Day to Die Hard director John Moore still stands in awe of the groundbreaking action film. "Die Hard is in a league all of its own," says Moore. "Bruce was born to be John McClane, and the combination with McTiernan is hall of fame. We're honored to be mentioned in the same paragraph." Two days later while sitting on a lawn chair at the Four Seasons Hotel, Willis goes from joking about his need for a garden hose to quench his thirst after polishing off a glazed doughnut, to instantly being reflective about the honor.

"I'm sure years from now we'll have a much clearer idea of what you should say," says Willis. "It's just awesome." Willis also laughs that he had to endure some ribbing from his daughters, who had a number of questions about the mural. "They were cracking up, saying that my eyes are not blue. And they don't remember me with hair. And they were saying, 'You're making that up, right, about the billion dollars?' But they were very nice about it." The size of the mural is such that "they say you can see it from outer space,'' he says. "The guys in the shuttle are going to be like, 'Is that John McClane down there?' It's like that thing that came from another world." Willis was very much in another world in 1987 when he and McTiernan shot the movie. At the time, he was the wisecracking star of ABC's private detective comedy Moonlighting alongside Cybill Shepherd, but he found an 11-week window to make his foray into action films. Willis seamlessly made the transition, bringing his Moonlighting smart talk to the big screen.

He insists his "yippee ki-yay'' line was an ad-lib reaction to phone taunting by archvillain Hans Gruber (played with wicked relish by British actor Alan Rickman). "That was me," says Willis. "I gave my take on Alan Rickman calling me Mr. American Cowboy." The film immediately established several themes that would continue throughout the franchise — lots of explosions, strong yet dysfunctional family dynamics (starting with McClane's estranged wife being one of the Nakatomi hostages), and a lack of outward emotion, even when it came to leaving a message for his wife in the face of certain peril. "There was one scene where I thought I'd show just a little whisper of emotion," explains Willis, "and John McTiernan said, 'I don't want that.' " It all worked, despite some fundamental confusion from the leading man ("I never knew what 'die hard' meant anyways — was it that I was hard-headed?" says Willis). And he has some regrets about the first film, like Gruber falling to his death from the building at the end. "We shouldn't have killed him off," says Willis.

"He was the best bad guy I have ever seen in my life." But the film's place as an action classic was set immediately, and the box-office hits kept coming. Die Hard 2: Die Harder (1990, with $240 million worldwide) featured Willis trying to save his wife (Bonnie Bedelia) from a terrorist hijacking in Washington, D.C. Die Hard With a Vengeance (1995, with $366 million) had Willis and Samuel L. Jackson trying to stop a bomber in New York City. Live Free or Die Hard (2007, with $383 million) featured Willis fighting Internet terrorists while protecting his grown daughter (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). Willis was sure the fourth was the final film and said as much. He shakes his head at the thought. "I was just probably scared or something. I cannot imagine not coming back," says Willis. "You get in these press conferences and it's like OK, here's something I should say, 'I'm never going to do another of these things.' " He signed onto A Good Day to Die Hard despite, once again, confusion over the meaning of the title.

"I certainly don't understand the title," says Willis deadpanning. "It sounds very Cheyenne Indian. It seems like they have married a few cultures in there. But you can't question. You can't pick it apart too much." His nonchalance belies a real care for the iconic character. Director Moore says Willis' reputation as being difficult on a set stems from his desire to protect McClane. CLOSE x Share Old school meets new school as John (Bruce Willis) and Jack (Jai Courtney) McClane take on Russian villains. "A lot of people want to create mythology about people's difficulty. It's a Hollywood thing. It's prophesied to you about how difficult something is going to be," says Moore. "Bruce is the 'd' word, but it's not 'difficult,' it's 'demanding.' As it should be. When you are Bruce Willis and everything you say can be immediately turned into a T-shirt, he has to be hyper-vigilant." "This is his legacy. He's difficult in that he works your butt off," says producer Wyck Godfrey. "You gotta respect where it's coming from: It started with him and it's going to end with him.

I needed my thick skin on the day I landed in Budapest for the filming.'' While Willis took a jump from a parking structure to an air bag (followed by a real fireball) in the Die Hard original, those days are gone. With 58 approaching next month, Willis admits he leaves much of the dangerous onset stuff to the stuntmen. "It's a very big science now. It's big business," says Willis. "They always keep it safe, even if it always doesn't look like it's safe." That's fine by Moore: "We don't ask him to drive the catering truck, either. We ask the stunt guys to play their parts. " But the sideways smirk is ever-present and the quips are almost as numerous as the explosions in the new film as Willis and Courtney try to intercept a nuclear weapons shipment. "There always has to be various elements of mayhem, explosions, and it has to be fraught with peril," says Willis. Recently, the genre itself has been perilous, as ventures by '80s action stars have seen weak box office.

Arnold Schwarzenegger's The Last Stand (which opened ninth in January with $6.3 million) and Sylvester Stallone's Bullet to the Head (a $4.5 million opening weekend) both tanked. But Godfrey insists that Willis has a distinct advantage: his famous character. "It's John McClane," he says. "My kids and I have both grown up on John McClane. It's different when you are dealing with a character that is known and loved like this." Godfrey says he has no concerns, insisting that confidential studio pre-release tracking shows the action movie will do "phenomenally well.'' "Trust me, we ain't worrying about Die Hard," says Godfrey. While the absentee-father McClane still has his own family issues that include an angry grown son, Willis relishes being a father, especially to 10-month-old Mabel Ray Willis (to second wife Emma Heming). The action star even insists he takes on diaper duty ("I hold the record for speed changing — I'm under seven seconds"). Willis says he lives to entertain Mabel. "It's like how can I make this child laugh today. I act out all of my parts. And the goofier I do, the better.

... It's all I want to do. Acting is so far down the road as compared to any time hanging out with my kids." But the jobs will continue and will stay loud for a while. Willis will reprise his role as Gen. Joe Colton in GI Joe: Retaliation (out March 29), and he'll appear alongside Helen Mirren and John Malkovich in the aging-assassin sequel Red 2 (out Aug. 2). And Willis has dropped the idea of telling interviewers that he's not going to do another Die Hard, out of respect for his character. "I don't think we should kill him. I've certainly been shot a few times. And winged and dinged," says Willis. "But I don't want to see John McClane shot (dead) just yet." CLOSE John (Bruce Willis) and Jack (Jai Courtney) find themselves greatly outnumbered. Besides, there are years of potential box-office glory and maybe more title confusion ahead. "I think we should get more and more cryptic with the titles," he muses with his trademark smirk. "A Most Unusual Day to Die Hard and No Explanation for Why Today Is a Day to Die Hard.

I think we should keep the audience guessing." 46 CONNECT TWEET LINKEDIN 4 COMMENTEMAILMORE Read or Share this story: NEVER MISS OUT Life Be a pop culture maven. Get the news, reviews and the juiciest celebrity stories that keep you in the know, Monday-Friday. Die Hard (1988) - IMDb IMDb There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error John McClane, officer of the NYPD, tries to save his wife Holly Gennaro and several others that were taken hostage by German terrorist Hans Gruber during a Christmas party at the Nakatomi Plaza in Los Angeles.

Director: From $2.99 (SD) on Amazon Video ON DISC a list of 31 titles created 01 Sep 2011 a list of 47 titles created 28 May 2015 a list of 36 titles created 05 Oct 2015 a list of 39 titles created 28 Nov 2015 a list of 23 titles created 2 months ago Search for " Die Hard " on Amazon.com Connect with IMDb Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Nominated for 4 Oscars. Another 6 wins & 2 nominations. See more awards » Videos John McClane attempts to avert disaster as rogue military operatives seize control of Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C. Director: Renny Harlin John McClane and a Harlem store owner are targeted by German terrorist Simon Gruber in New York City, where he plans to rob the Federal Reserve Building. Director: John McTiernan John McClane and a young hacker join forces to take down master cyber-terrorist Thomas Gabriel in Washington D.C.

Director: Len Wiseman A cyborg, identical to the one who failed to kill Sarah Connor, must now protect her teenage son, John Connor, from a more advanced cyborg. Director: James Cameron 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8/10 X A seemingly indestructible humanoid cyborg is sent from 2029 to 1984 to assassinate a waitress, whose unborn son will lead humanity in a war against the machines, while a soldier from that war is sent to protect her at all costs. Director: James Cameron Marty McFly, a 17-year-old high school student, is accidentally sent 30 years into the past in a time-traveling DeLorean invented by his close friend, the maverick scientist Doc Brown. Director: Robert Zemeckis During a preview tour, a theme park suffers a major power breakdown that allows its cloned dinosaur exhibits to run amok. Director: Steven Spielberg Archaeologist and adventurer Indiana Jones is hired by the U.S. government to find the Ark of the Covenant before the Nazis. Director: Steven Spielberg When Dr. Henry Jones Sr.

suddenly goes missing while pursuing the Holy Grail, eminent archaeologist Indiana Jones must follow in his father's footsteps and stop the Nazis. Director: Steven Spielberg Rocky Balboa, a small-time boxer, gets a supremely rare chance to fight heavy-weight champion Apollo Creed in a bout in which he strives to go the distance for his self-respect. Director: John G. Avildsen Directors: Frank Miller, Robert Rodriguez, and 1 more credit » Stars: Mickey Rourke, Clive Owen, Bruce Willis A boy who communicates with spirits that don't know they're dead seeks the help of a disheartened child psychologist. Director: M. Night Shyamalan Edit Storyline NYPD cop John McClane goes on a Christmas vacation to visit his wife Holly in Los Angeles where she works for the Nakatomi Corporation. While they are at the Nakatomi headquarters for a Christmas party, a group of bank robbers led by Hans Gruber take control of the building and hold everyone hostage, with the exception of John, while they plan to perform a lucrative heist. Unable to escape and with no immediate police response, John is forced to take matters into his own hands. Written by Sam 40 Storeys. Twelve Terrorists.

One Cop. See more » Genres: 20 July 1988 (USA) See more » Also Known As: Duro de matar See more » Filming Locations: 70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints)| Dolby Stereo (35 mm prints) (4 channels) Color: Did You Know? Trivia Clarence Gilyard, Jr. (Theo) and Grand L. Bush (FBI Agent Little Johnson) both share the same birthdate, December 24, 1955. See more » Goofs When Sgt. Powell asks the security guard (terrorist posing as security guard) if he can take a look around the building. At the counter Powell is leaning on, the reflection of a giant stage lamp can be seen. See more » Quotes Businessman : You don't like flying, do you? John McClane : What gives you that idea? Businessman : You wanna know the secret to surviving air travel? After you get where you're going, take off your shoes and your socks then walk around on the rug bare foot and make fists with your toes. John McClane : Fists with your toes?

Businessman : I know, I know, it sounds crazy. Trust me, I've been doing it for nine years. Yes sir, better than a shower and a hot cup of coffee. [the businessman sees John's gun] John McClane : It's okay, I'm a cop. Trust me, I've been ... (The Penumbra) – See all my reviews In the Sixties, author Roderick Thorp wrote a novel, The Detective, which was turned into a movie, starring Frank Sinatra in the title role of Joe Leland. A sequel was written, in which Joe becomes trapped in the Claxxon Oil Corporation skyscraper after it is taken over by German terrorists and he has to rescue his daughter and grandchildren. Two decades later, the skyscraper becomes Nakatomi, the daughter becomes the wife, Leland becomes John McClane and the title becomes Die Hard. To say that Die Hard sets new standards for action movies is like calling Bill Gates well off. The movie was so innovative and groundbreaking that dozens of rip-offs followed - Passenger 57, Under Siege, Cliffhanger, Sudden Death, et al. Hostage/terrorist movies were all the rage in the early Nineties.

Very few came close, because Die Hard had so many strong points, not least of which was Alan Rickman's marvellous performance, as Hans Gruber - also the name of the villain in Our Man Flint - the classically educated, smartly dressed terrorist leader. This is not some hammy guy in a chain-mail shirt with spikes on his gloves (Commando). Gruber would have been well at home on Wall Street. His plan is to break into the vault on the 30th floor of the Nakatomi Plaza and take away $640million in negotiable bearer bonds. When he and his 12 European henchmen round up the office workers, who are enjoying a Christmas Eve party, one man slips away unnoticed. He is John McClane, a New York cop who has come to LA to settle down with his estranged wife, Holly (Bonnie Bedelia). The odds are against him. But that's just the way he likes it. The terrorists even have names. And we remember them. Most action movies these days have unidentified heavies, played by stunt men, who are lined up and knocked over.

In his battle to save his Holly, McClane is scorched, torched, beaten and blown up. He jumps off the roof and falls through air ducts. He uncovers deception and double-cross and picks broken glass out of his bare feet. No help comes from the naive and incompetent police, who are unable to get inside, and even less from the FBI. McClane is not a supercop. He is an ordinary guy, who doesn't want a fight. When he is shot, he bleeds. He hurts. All he has are his pants, his vest, his gun - which runs out of ammo. This is the first realistic connection the audience has. When you don't want to be in McClane's position, it makes for much excitement. John McTiernan, who's only previous mainstream movie was Predator, uses awesome photography and technical skills to give the film a truly polished and sophisticated look - it was nominated for four technical Academy Awards. He also allows for enough time for decent character development, most of which comes between McClane and a cop (Reginald Veljohnson) he makes friends with on a CB radio. Die Hard manages to be heart-pounding and teeth-gritting every single time.

And if you are one of those many people who have only ever been able to watch it on TV then now is definitely the time to rediscover a cool, classic and creative action picture. 72 of 123 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes John McClane | Heroes Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia „ ~ John McClane's famous catchphrase John McClane, Sr. is the primary protagonist of the Die Hard film series. He is an Irish-American NYPD Detective Lieutenant who has the gift to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, getting involved in many terrorist attacks, that he often has to stop by himself. He also worked with the Los Angeles Police Department for a year. He is played by Bruce Willis and carried a Beretta 92FS as his sidearm for many years. Contents [ show ] Biography His first appearance was as a streetwise and wisecracking cop who travels to Los Angeles on Christmas Eve in an attempt to get back together with his estranged wife, Holly.

When he arrives at her office skyscraper where she works, the building is taken over by a team of thirteen highly organized European terrorists, led by the suave yet sinister Hans Gruber , who intends on a heist of $640,000,000 in negotiable bank bonds that are in the building's vault. Barefoot and armed only with his Beretta 92F service pistol, he kills them all and drops Gruber out a thirty story high window when he attempts to kill Holly. His second appearance was in Die Harder, exactly one year later, where he took on a group of mercenaries who took over the Washington-Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C. Holly was on one of the planes that the terrorists were forcing to circle around the runways, desperately low on fuel. McClane took on all the terrorists again and killed their leader, Colonel Stuart , by lighting a trail of fuel which caused their airplane to explode as it took off in an escape attempt. McClane's next appearance is in Die Hard with a Vengeance, where he is down in the dumps. McClane has become an alcoholic since Holly left him and he is lower than ever.

McClane is suspended from the force for some antics that are never specified but he is reinstated when terrorist mastermind and genius Simon Gruber , plants bombs all over New York City and threatens to detonate them unless he goes through his twisted game of nearly impossible riddles and tasks, which send him careening from one end of the city to the other in a race against time with a tough, hotheaded shopkeeper named Zeus Carver . This is seemingly a revenge plot for his brother, but it is revealed to be a gold heist from the Federal Reserve. McClane later kills Simon by shooting his helicopter down into some power lines. In the fourth film, McClane is now in his fifties and winds up getting drawn into a plot with a young hacker by a new breed of cyber-terrorists to shut down the United States Government infrastructure and then rob it blind in the denouement. McClane is able to outsmart the terrorists who use all their means to try and kill him, even tricking a fighter jet into attacking him while he is driving their semi truck. McClane later kills their leader, Thomas Gabriel , by shooting him through his own shoulder after he tries to kill McClane's daughter, Lucy .

In the fifth film he stops a nuclear weapons heist in Russia with his son, Jack . He and Jack kill Yuri Komarov and Irina Komarov , his daughter. Jack kills Yuri by tossing him off a roof into helicopter roters and Irina commits suicide in an attempt to kill Jack and John by crashing her helicopter into the building they were in. The two return back home and reunite with Lucy. The sixth film is in the works, but the speculated plot involves McClane going to Japan with Lucy to recieve an honor from the Nakatomi corporation from the first film, only for it to be taken over by Japanese terrorists who are presumably trying to rob it. Characteristics McClane's appearance varies throughout the series, but the basis remains the same. It often consists of a flannel shirt, a pair of light trousers and a white tank top that is blackened over the course of each respective film. McClane's hairline also noticeably recedes until the point of it being almost invisible in the fourth film. McClane was a small but muscular man. With a tattoo on his left arm and a slightly unshaven face, McClane cut quite the intimidating figure when dealing with criminals.

McClane had a scar on his left eyebrow that recieved further damage in both Die Hard and Die Hard 2. The scar can still be seen in 'Die Hard with a Vengence' but goes missing in the later sequels. John is an average American man still stuck in the 20th century. With his cocky nature, McClane is able to stir up friendships quite easily as seen by his interaction with airplane passenger in the first film. However, this cocky nature also lands him in trouble with other authority figures in the series such as Dwayne T. Robinson and Carmine Lorenzo. Wisecracking and a smirk whenever he talks to someone, McClane held a very laid back and cool approach to dealing with the people around him, this ease would quickly disappear, however, when faced with life threatening occurrences such as Nakatomi and Dulles Airport. Early in the series, McClane seems quite taken aback by the death of Takagi, however, by the end of the series, it is quite common to McClane, who makes a trademark witty retort to his lifeless enemy. While subtle, McClane's character does change slightly in every film.

In the first 'Die Hard' McClane comes off as a little resevered and hard edged, which can be attributed to the marital problems, jet lag and the fact that he's in a situation he feels uncomfortable in. In 'Die Hard 2', McClane comes off as a lot more light-hearted and jokey. This is probably due to the fact that this is the only time in the series where he's shown happily married with no personal struggles to be found. Five years later we find McClane in 'Die Hard with a Vengeance' has hit rock bottom, having not spoken to Holly in a year and has become an alcoholic. McClane here is closer to how he was in the first film albeit in a more foul mood due to his hangover. In Live Free or Die Hard, McClane is shown to be bitter about his previous heroics, saying they cost him his family. McClane was a heavy smoker during the first three Die Hard films, lighting up whenever he got a chance to relax.

In "Die Hard 2" while running to catch Esperanza's plane on the runway, McClane states "[He's] gotta quit smokin' cigarettes." In "Die Hard with a Vengeance" McClane only lights up once, probably due to the fact that he never got a real chance to relax, especially since he spent a lot of the film running. Towards the end of the film, McClane is seen pulling out a packet of cigarettes, only to throw them away when he realizes that they're soaking wet. He's never seen smoking in either "Live Free or Die Hard" or "A Good Day to Die Hard", possibly because he quite smoking before the events of "Live Free or Die Hard". Bruce Willis was behind this change. A non-smoker himself, he didn't want children to go see McClane glorifying smoking. McClane was also a heavy drinker in "Die Hard with a Vengeance" and most likely raised Catholic, as he knew how to do the sign of the Cross and told Zeus how to do it properly.

Appearances Bruce Willis plays John McClane in five films: Die Hard (first appearance) Die Hard 2: Die Harder Die Hard with a Vengeance Live Free or Die Hard A Good Day to Die Hard The Series Project: Die Hard (Part 1) - CraveOnline CraveOnline Here are the strangest sex fetishes that don't even make it onto your favorite porn site. The Series Project: Die Hard (Part 1) Professor Witney Seibold gets his 'splosion on with the first three Die Hard movies. by Witney Seibold Feb 9th, 2013 As regular readers of The Series Project can attest, I have a set of frequently-unabided rules that I try to follow when it comes to selecting what series I will cover. When I first conceived of the idea, I decided to limit my selection of long-running film series to any sequence of films that totaled five or more. True, I have written about one three-film series (that'd be Basket Case ) and one four-film series (that'd be 3 Ninjas , which I still think someone owes me for), but I typically like to stick to five. I did this for two reasons.

One was that I felt a film series was really in the thick of things by the time it got to part V; by the fifth film, we'll have strayed so far from the original premise, that we might have to contend with something new, adding an odd epic element to an otherwise interesting film series. The second reason was to avoid the spate of fraudulent Part IVs that had sprung up a few years ago. Like a film series was content with three parts, but decided to tack on a fourth chapter years after the fact in what always felt like a cynical cash-grab. Think of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Think of Rambo. Think of Die Hard. Closed at three, re-opened under new management at four. In short, I made up my five-part rule specifically to avoid doing a series like Die Hard. Of course, Die Hard, in a twist I never could have expected, bucked my expectations by stretching into a fifth. There are even rumors of a sixth in the mill. This means it's ripe for the Series Project plucking, and it's high time I turn my critical eye on another deserving series that will be, next week, opening its fifth and final (?) chapter.

What's more, the first film will be celebrating its 25th annivarsary this year, and a retrospective Blu-ray set has been released to commemorate the event. I have managed to get my greasy critical mitts on a copy of said the Die Hard 25th Anniversary Blu-ray Collection , and all my reviews will be taken directly from my Blu-ray experience. Before I begin in earnest, let me explain my relationship with Die Hard. The first Die Hard film came out in 1988, just weeks before my tenth birthday. It was a huge hit, and even though they were young, all of my peers managed to see it. I think cable TV might have a lot to do with that. Die Hard was praised endlessly by my friends as the most awesomest film ever (right next to Predator), fulla 'splosions an' fights an' blood an' swears, and the really cool scene were the bad guy falls off a tall building. From a cultural standpoint, this film came out right when I was the right age. But, being the typical pop-culture oddball I was, I didn't see it until I was 30 years old.

I saw a few scenes of Die Hard with a Vengeance on TV in college, I guess, but never saw a frame of the original for many years. Yes, like many other so-called action classics of the 1980s, I did not watch it in its heyday. Ditto on flicks like 48 Hrs., Beverly Hills Cop, Predator, Lethal Weapon, Commando, Aliens, Star Wars, and several others. Where was I? I dunno, really. Playing Nintendo, watching Mel Brooks movies, watching cartoons, watching "Star Trek" reruns, and running around outside, I guess. Unlike many of my peers, I seemed to have little drive toward action and car chases. To my credit, I have by now seen all of those films I listed. I think this is what happens when a) you don't have cable TV in your house, and b) you watch weird-ass cult movies like Eraserhead at too early an age. My love for films has always skewed toward the weird as a result of my local video store's “cult” section. Mainstream action blockbusters were a tertiary concern. Discovering Die Hard, however, was a wonderful experience for me.

I have since fallen in love with Die Hard, and have seen it several times since, including on the big screen on a nice, new 35mm print which I projected myself. I love every explosion, fight and nuance of the original. Die Hard is not a fake action movie. It's the real deal. The premise of the series is this: in each film, resilient and wise-cracking New York cop John McClane, played by Bruce Willis in all of the films, discovers a huge plot involving terrorists of some stripe. He is often thrust unexpectedly into the middle of a crime, and must use his resourcefulness to get himself out. McClane is a brutal guy who is not above having fistfights or shooting bad guys or using explosives. He is untrusted by his superiors. He has a tempestuous marriage that will eventually end, as well as two children. There is no other arc to John McClane's life. He is un-nuanced. He's just a fun action star. Let's get this helicopter exploding with my coverage of the 1988 original. I will be brief, because I know you know it. Die Hard (dir.

John McTiernan, 1988) What can I say about Die Hard? It's a perfect movie. Seriously, the film is impeccable. It's long without dragging. It's explosive without being indulgent. It's funny without being goofy. Every clever premise is just clever enough. It's not ponderous or deep, and contains no “big” ideas. It's just the single most efficient and spectacular action film since, gosh, Raiders of the Lost Ark. I'm not just blowing smoke here either. Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant , two very funny, and very successful Hollywood screenwriters (and erstwhile members of "The State"), have written a book on the basic mechanics of Hollywood screenwriting, giving nothing but practical advice on how to operate within the system. One of their central pieces of advice was to watch Die Hard. A lot. In terms of screenwriting, Die Hard is pretty much flawless. Every single detail that is introduced early in the film comes directly into play later in the film. The characters are all in the right places, and they all move in relation to each other. No action feels extraneous or padded. No shootout is gratuitous.

Even little things stand out; early in the movie, Holly (Bonnie Bedelia), McClane's estranged wife, casually turns down a picture frame for a very definite reason. Much later in the film, Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman), the villain, turns the picture up after having had to deal with McClane and his explosive shenanigans for hours. The moment cements the fact that the villain finally knows who the hero is, and the action is ratcheted up all the more. It's just a little detail, but it's the kind of detail that enriches a Hollywood screenplay, and turns it from an action flick into a great action flick. Die Hard is full of little moments like that. Seriously, if you're thinking of writing a successful action movie that will sell and be celebrated, watch Die Hard. A lot. The story is familiar to everyone: New York cop John McClane (Bruce Willis) has come to Los Angeles to try to patch up his marriage with Holly, who has been living alone in L.A. with their kids and her maiden name. They meet at a Christmas Eve party (Die Hard is most definitely a Christmas film) that is being held in her state-of-the-art office building.

The office workers are the only ones left in the building for the holiday. Just when John and Holly are on the cusp of patching things up, Hans Gruber breaks into the building and takes all the people hostage. John manages to escape notice, and flees into the building with no shoes (!) and a gun. Eventually John manages to do battle with Gruber's various thugs, acquiring weapons and small scraps of information as to what Gruber is really up to. The good guy and the bad guy banter over walkie-talkies, but never meet until much later in the film. McClane must not only discover Gruber's plan and do battle with increasingly pissed-off gun-toting thugs, but get the attention of the cops for backup, in the form of Al (Reginald VelJohnson from "Family Matters"). Also, there's an eventual media circus and FBI involvement. Paul Gleason plays a clueless cop, William Atherton plays a jerky ambitious reporter, Robert Davi appears as a murderous FBI guy, there's a cokehead yuppie (Hart Bochner), and a brave owner of the building (James Shigeta).

De'voreaux White plays a sassy limo driver named Argyle who is unwittingly locked in the basement. The screenplay puts all these pieces on the board, and never loses track as to where each of them is at any given moment. Die Hard is long at 131 minutes, but it earns its length. It ratchets up the action to a delirious degree, and does go over the top, but it's that rare action film that earns its dramatic upticks. Often an action film will pile on a huge finale just for the sake of it; there'll be a big fight, but it will feel compulsory. Die Hard hits a lot of familiar action movie beats, but it never feels clichéd. It's always fun and awesome. Indeed, Die Hard was such a success (it was nominated for four tech Oscars), it came to be a new Hollywood mold for action pictures. I feel like something was born with Die Hard. For over a decade, the new action film ideal had to involve clever terrorists and resourceful, hard-working lawmen facing off in concrete-steel jungles.

They were definitely an adjunct of Badass Cinema , these Die Hard imitators, but they were less about muscular might (à la Commando) than they were about a new level of slick spectacle. Die Hard had some wit, and bigger explosions than ever before. In the late '80s and early '90s, you would see many movie posters that proudly declared “IT'S LIKE 'DIE HARD' ON A _____________!” Indeed, the Die-Hard-on-a-bus film from 1994, Jan de Bont's Speed, is another action classic of a similar caliber, if not a different vintage. De Bont, not incidentally, was the DP on Die Hard. Eventually that type of hype came full-circle, though. I think I saw someone tout their action flick as “Speed in a building!” Or was that a joke I heard? The theme music to Die Hard was Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, which now has me thinking of this film and A Clockwork Orange simultaneously. I'm glad I eventually saw Die Hard, even though it took me about 20 years. I'm happy to watch it anytime. I know people who watch it every Christmas. It's pretty universally loved.

If you have any beefs with the film (or its fans; I know unending praise for a film from peers can be obnoxious), let me know. I'm not going to fight you, or even hold you up as a bizarre example of the single outlier (as a critic, I've been in that position way too many times to throw any stones), but I would like to hear what flaws the film has. Even if you love it, point them out to me, because, honestly, I can't find any. It's that solid. Oh wait. I did think of one flaw. It comes in the form of… Die Hard 2 (dir. Renny Harlin, 1990) a.k.a. Die Hard 2: Die Harder I guess the sequel was inevitable. It's a pity it had to be this one. I did just call Die Hard a perfect action movie, so I suppose if one were to compare any action film to it, it would only pale in comparison. So any sequel to Die Hard would have to be a disappointment. Like any film series that bursts out of the gate with a well-known classic as its first chapter, follow-ups can only ever be disappointments.

Think The Exorcist. Think Rocky . Think Dirty Harry . As such, Die Hard 2 (whose sometimes-used subtitle of Die Harder only baffles me) plays like a vague, high-octane action film that could be the sequel to any ol’ action flick. Indeed, you will learn in the credits that this film was based on a Walter Wager novel called 58 Minutes, which did not feature John McClane or any of the Die Hard characters. The novel was, from what I understand, adapted into a screenplay, and was then repurposed at the last minute to be a Die Hard sequel. Despite all the common characters the resulting film shared with the original Die Hard, Die Hard 2 feels like it was repurposed. There’s nothing about the action that warrants the return of John McClane. I feel like Die Hard 2 would have worked better had it just been a proper Die Hard ripoff. To be fair, Die Hard 2 is not awful. It's just kind of a mess that leaves you distinctly unsatisfied. It's a jumble of action sequences that lack the taut closed-in atmosphere of the first.

John McClane (Bruce Willis) is no longer confined to a small, easy-to-read space like a single locked-up building, making for the first film’s ever-appealing geographical efficiency. Now he's running willy-nilly all over Dulles International Airport, often with an unclear goal in mind, trying to stop a bad guy with unclear goals, an ever-growing roster of cronies, and who is not nearly as interesting as Alan Rickman, even though he's played by Italian exploitation deity Franco Nero. Nero plays a South American drug lord named General Esperanza who has recently been apprehended by international police, and who is to be extradited to Washington DC through Dulles International Airport on Christmas Eve. John McClane happens to be at that same airport on that same day. John has patched things up with Holly (Bonnie Bedelia), who is in a plane, about to meet him on the ground. At the same time, we see a slick muscular thug named Stuart (the awesome William Sadler) lurking about in a black outfit, taking over an abandoned church just outside of town so that he may set up a remote techno-lab.

The first time we see Sadler’s character, he’s practicing tai chi in a motel room in the nude. I love it when the first shot of a movie’s villain is a nude tai chi scene, which is, oddly, a conceit I’ve encountered several times. It won’t take you long to figure out that Sadler has found a way to override the Dulles air traffic control towers, and force planes to crash. That he also wants to rescue Esperanza from the cops shouldn’t come as a surprise either. The notion of plane crashes and stolen air traffic control was actually somewhat topical in 1990. I don’t know how many people remember this, but Ronald Reagan once notoriously fired a great many air traffic controllers when they went on strike in 1981. The following years saw a huge amount of near-misses at airports, as less qualified people had to take the reins. Okay, maybe by 1990 it wasn’t so topical, but it was something I thought of. However, in this era of the TSA and removed shoes, a 1990 flick about air travel will seem chaotic and quaint. Some other familiar faces are back for Die Hard 2.

Holly, for instance, finds herself on a plane with William Atherton’s Richard Thornburg, the jerky ambitious reporter from the first Die Hard. The two of them spend the entirety of Die Hard 2 on a plane that is circling Dulles, waiting for clearance to land, threatening to run out of fuel. Thornburg spends the bulk of the film using radio transmitters to listen in on the terrorists, and attempting to relay the news back to his network. That he causes a panic shouldn’t come as a surprise. Also back is Reginald VelJohnson, who has a good-natured phone conversation with John McClane. McClane, it should be clarified at this point, is an old-fashioned type of guy who is suspicious of new trends, and hateful of new technologies. Fax machines weird him out, and he prefers to use guns and fists and old-fashioned footwork to solve crimes. There’s an integrity to that, although by the fourth Die Hard film, as we’ll discover next week, the Luddite shtick will wear thin.

John McClane has an unexpected shoot-out with some thugs, which leads him to discover that bad guys are lurking around the airport, which, in turn, leads him to intuit the bad guy’s plan. The rest of the film is pretty much McClane shouting things like “Why won’t you listen to me! They’re up to something!” The moral of the story is: always listen to John McClane. There are a lot more twists and turns, and plenty of other characters (Fred Dalton Thompson is an air traffic controller, Dennis Franz is a snippy cop, and there’s a functionally retarded janitor who lives under the airport, and who helps McClane), but the story feels like a hastily-assembled mess. There’s a twist late in the film, for instance, that reveals how many people are really working for Esperanza, and it’s a plot twist that doesn’t hold up to any logical scrutiny. There are some cool set-pieces, I guess; there’s a scene where McClane, in order to escape a landed plane with grenades in it, must eject himself out the top, and that’s pretty cool.

But many of the set-pieces are clunky and kind of dumb; the way McClane dispatches the bad guy’s fleeing airplane at the end of the film is pretty ridiculous, as it involves a living flashfire that can somehow travel faster than a plane and leap through the air, into a fuel tank, and blow up an entire plane, all in moments. There’s also not one but two fights on the wing of a moving plane, only one of which ends in a guy being fed into a jet engine. I wasn’t very fond of director Renny Harlin to begin with (I suppose A Nightmare on Elm Street 4 is pretty good, and I like The Long Kiss Goodnight a lot, but he has Driven, an Exorcist prequel, an Andrew “Dice” Clay vehicle and Cutthroat Island working against him), and Die Hard 2 isn’t helping his case. Again, not awful or incompetent, but most certainly disappointing when compared to the taut perfection of the original. Y’know who'd make an awesome Die Hard sequel? Die Hard with a Vengeance (dir. John McTiernan, 1995) Despite its pretty stultifying title (how does one die with a vengeance?

is that worse than dying hard with a vengeance?), Die Hard with a Vengeance kicks huge amounts of ass. The original director is back, and he seems to know exactly what to do with the material, i.e. ratchet it up to amazingly spectacular levels, making sure to stay just barely below the overkill line. I recall when the film was released in 1995, it was often lambasted for… I dunno really. I just seem to recall critcs and Die Hard fans giving the flick a bum rap. I don’t know why. The film is awesome. True, it feels like three or four movies crammed into one, but this seemed to come from a time when single action films felt the need to give more bang for the buck. Die Hard with a Vengeance is not trim or sleek like its 1988 predecessor. It only has some of the plot efficiency that made the original such a well-loved classic. Indeed, it’s rather bloated and enormous. But in a really, really enjoyable way. Dang, the film is entertaining. The story boils down to essentially a scavenger hunt, a subgenre I happen to be very fond of.

We’re in New York now, John McClane’s home turf, and the movie is very much a New York movie, largely about the geography of the city, traveling on subways, and, most of all, dealing with brusque New Yorkers. The local color of pre-Giuliani NYC seems to be right on the money. McClane (Bruce Willis) is now separated from Holly again (Bonnie Bedelia does not appear in the film), and is teetering on the brink of alcoholism. When a mad bomber nicknamed Simon (Jeremy Irons) begins blowing up small chunks of the city, he specifically asks that McClane be brought in to investigate. Simon gives bizarre instructions to McClane, threatening to blow up another bomb should he not comply. McClane must race to various payphones throughout the city, answering calls from Simon, and solving puzzles and math problems. One of the challenges is to go to Harlem wearing a sandwich board with a racial slur written on it. That sort of thing. The scavenger hunt approach is a grand way to tell an action story. Along the way, McClane accumulates a friendly and fierce shop-owner named Zeus (Samuel L.

Jackson), and much of the film depends on the banter and chemistry between the grizzled white cop, and the no-nonsense black civilian. Maybe that’s why people objected to the film: John McClane, by 1995, was seen as an all-American lone wolf badass, and pairing him up with a mismatched “buddy,” in what is essentially an ancient movie trope, seemed to cheapen the character. I didn’t mind, as their chemistry is great, their banter feels natural, and Zeus is an interesting character played by an intense actor. I kind of hate when any movie series starts buying its own hype anyway. Like when the drama in the film is predicated on how important the character is to the audience going in. Think of the Star Wars prequels . So much of those films were based on what audiences already knew about Star Wars beforehand, and, as a result, the films felt presumptuous. I don’t want to assume anyone is a badass going in, even if I know who they are. James Bond should always have an opening action scene showing what he can do, even if we’ve seen it in twenty-some movies in the past.

John McClane started to become too mythic for his own good. He moved from a hard-working cop into a bullet-proof badass. Keep in mind, when the first Die Hard came out in 1988, Bruce Willis hadn’t yet proven himself as a viable action star. Indeed, he was only known for comedic stuff like "Moonlighting." John McClane was not a badass. He was more of an everyman. He bled copiously, and got seriously injured (indeed, that’s a trope of these movies: McClane bleeds a lot). By the sequels, though, his reputation has grown, and he was considered a badass in the minds of the audiences. People now expected him to actually become indestructible and tough, even though that wasn’t really the point the first time around. My guess is that many fans, ironically, objected to Die Hard with a Vengeance because of how much it did resemble the tone of the first. Here’s an everyman doing wild stuff that is within the purview of a regular cop who just happens to be enormously resilient and extraordinarily brave.

Okay, maybe McClane is something of a superhero, but I wouldn’t put the 1988 version of the character in the same camp as folks like John Rambo. What else? The rock star Sam Phillips plays the butch mute assassin in this flick. Colleen Camp shows up as a cop. There’s a resilient bomb guy. The film blows up a subway train, a boat, and a helicopter. The villain’s ultimate plan is, of course, more than to just mess around with John McClane; it turns out he is using the bombings as a distraction to rob all the gold out of the Federal Reserve. It’s also mentioned that Simon is actually Hans Gruber’s brother, which is a dumb plot development, and could have been cut from the film entirely without losing anything. Another thing I hate about some sequels: when the drama is predicated on the hero’s established history. Like in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The first film in that series was a story of an interesting character solving an interesting crime. The sequels, sadly, weren’t about her solving crimes anymore, it all became about skeletons in the character’s closet.

Die Hard with a Vengeance, what with the vengeful brother angle, begins to feel like John McClane is starting to eat his own tail. Luckily, the evil brother angle is not vital, and we can focus on the kick-ass action scenes, like when McClane and Zeus dangle a truck’s winch over the Brooklyn Bridge in order to hook a passing boat so that they may climb down the wire onto the boat. 1995 was a better time for special effects than today, as it involved more real explosions and real stunts. Check out the subway crash sequence. It’s amazing. So, yes, I defend the third Die Hard film. It’s just an awesome thrill ride that feels like it’s going out of its way to entertain you. Like it’s not content to give you one finale, so it throws in three. It blows up way more than it needs to. The villain changes alliance several times. It’s like expecting to get off a rollercoaster, but the operator decides, at the last minute, to run you through again. I don’t seem to get that kind of devotion from any action directors anymore. And that’s where we’ll leave it for the week, kiddos.

Be sure to join me next week for my coverage of the years-after-the-fact Live Free or Die Hard, and my review of the brand new A Good Day to Die Hard. Settle into the saddle, and scream yippie-ki-yay. Witney Seibold is a featured contributor on the CraveOnline Film Channel, co-host of The B-Movies Podcast and co-star of The Trailer Hitch . You can read his weekly articles B-Movies Extended , Free Film School and The Series Project , and follow him on “Twitter” at @WitneySeibold , where he is slowly losing his mind.

Question: In which series of action films does the character of John McClane appear?
Answer: Die Hard